Yorkshire Fly Fishing

Loch Lundavra (or Loch Wonder bra as I inexplicably kept calling it) sounded rather splendid in Bruce Sandison’s indispensable ‘The Rivers and Lochs of Scotland’, especially as his description included reference to Ben Nevis forming part of the backdrop. This mile-long loch is located about 6 miles from Fort William and the trout are generally in the ¼ lb to ½ lb bracket although there are much bigger fish in here, apparently. We decided to choose this loch as the destination for our last full day’s fishing whilst staying in Glencoe for our annual holiday.

I say full day, but your idea of full day and mine may differ. A typical day began with coffee, smoke, banter, coffee, smoke, more banter, breakfast, coffee, smoke, banter, make packed lunch, coffee, smoke followed by a trip to Fort William for provisions, more unnecessary tackle and perhaps a spot of lunch before finally setting off on the drive to our destination. Consequently, we arrived at Lundavra farm rather late in the day but seeing as it was nearly mid-summer time was still on our side.

After purchasing permits we trotted down the hill to the loch, instantly enamoured with its spectacular surroundings which included the mighty Ben Nevis. Phil and Stu opted to take the boat out whilst I fished from the bank and in retrospect they probably had the best chances. They would perhaps have had even better luck if I’d remembered to bring the drogue but nobody’s perfect. Whilst drifting down the loch (at a no-doubt alarming rate of knots) they did manage to make contact with a healthy number of trout and landed several, some of which were slightly larger than the typical hill loch standard.

I fished hard from the bank but only managed 2 fish for my efforts before things went decidedly dour. Despite the fact that it had been a very warm day, a cold wind hit the loch early in the evening and managed to put the fish down and dampen our enthusiasm for this otherwise very appealing loch and we didn’t fish through until dusk.

It seems this loch is known for its dour days but if you’re not catching fish there’s plenty of fine scenery to look at so don’t be discouraged from paying it a visit. If my memory serves me right, successful flies on the day included small muddlers and bibio-type patterns.

Permits and boats from:
Mrs MacCallum, Lundavra Farm. Tel. 01397 702582